- By John Cunningham
- Published 08/3/2009
- Article Writing
Even if you’re not managing your own website, you can make money online by providing web site content. A lot of trained journalists and researchers are earning extra income by writing web site content for several clients around the globe. Before you get started though, here are a few guidelines on how to write well for the websites. Relevant Information Cyberspace thrives because of one thing: the thirst of people for knowledge. When you’re writing web site content, you’re providing just that: knowledge and information. It’s extremely important that you provide relevant information which web site visitors can use. According to surveys, websites that contain helpful how-to articles about top-searched niche markets get the most hits in a day. It’s every website owner’s goal to be ranked well in search engines, and to do that, they need to be rated well by their visitors. As a web content writer, you need to make sure that the articles in your client’s website are useful for human visitors. Proper keyword usage Your clients will be asking you to use and repeat keywords within your articles body. As a web site content writer, it’s you’re job to use these keywords correctly, and to make them “naturally” flow within your articles. It’s not enough that your sentence structures are grammatically correct. The keywords must also be in the context of your article’s main topic. Inverted pyramid
If you’ve written news articles before, you already know the importance of keeping all the important details in the first paragraph or lead of your article. When you’re writing w
eb content, it’s practically the same thing. The gist of the summary of your article comes first, while the latter parts of your articles simply expound on every major point you’re trying to make. It’s important for you to put all the important things in the first paragraph because it help the reader get hints about what your article is all about. If it doesn’t contain the information s/he needs, s/he can then move on to a different text. Bullets and subtitles Some clients may also encourage you to use bullets, lists, and subtitles in your article. This is because it’s strenuous to read text from the screen. If you type on your computer the whole day, you know exactly how tiring it is to read huge chunks of text from the monitor. The fact is that your readers are always in a hurry, and it’s least likely that they’ll read your article from the first word to the last. Make sure that you provide enough white spaces without your articles, and mark every important subtopic with subtitles. This makes your articles look well structured and organized. When the readers see how well you’ve organized your article, they won’t think twice about reading it. Proof read at all times It’s a complete no-no to turn over an article to your client which you haven’t proofread. You need to show your clients that you’re meticulous about your work. If you don’t, they won’t come to your for web content services again. Give your articles a once, even a twice over.
When you’re certain that there are no grammatical or typographical errors left, submit them for your client’s scrutiny. When your client sees how well you value your writing, they’ll even recommend you to their friends and contact you again for future projects.